Sound student cant play ball

NEW HAVEN  Theres no football team at New Havens Sound School. No basketball or hockey teams, either.

Natalie Missakian

Published
12:00 am EDT, Monday, October 13, 2003

Normally, aspiring quarterbacks, point guards and goalies who attend the regional agriculture school can still be part of a varsity sport, though, choosing to play at either James Hillhouse or Wilbur Cross High schools. The city even provides a bus to take students across town to practice.

But a Sound School student from West Haven or Guilford or Madison is out of luck if he or she wants to play sports in New Haven.

And, some must make a Herculean effort to get to practice on time if they want to play sports at all.

Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference regulations dictate that students at interdistrict schools must return to their respective hometowns for sports unless the regional school has its own sports team.

The transfer rules, say CIAC officials, are designed to stem the potential for recruiting wars and to keep students from jumping high schools in search of a powerhouse team.

Virginia Foushee of West Haven said the logistics of that rule make it difficult for her son, Wesley, a Sound School student, to play football this year.

"New Haven has so many great programs that so many people take advantage of," Foushee told the Board of Education recently. "I dont think its fair that they are denied the opportunity to participate in the athletic program just because they do not live in New Haven."

The CIACs Eligibility Committee denied New Havens request for a waiver of the rules to allow Foushee to play football at Cross this year.

But school officials are lobbying to have the regulations changed so future suburban students arent kept on the sidelines.

"Why send a kid miles and miles back to their hometown?" asked Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo, whose district hosts the states largest number of interdistrict schools. "Certainly, practice will be over by the time they get back."

With magnet and charter schools popping up all over Connecticut, requiring students to cross town lines to attend school, the athletic eligibility rules need to be more flexible, said Mayo.

Mayo, who plans to meet with CIAC Executive Director Michael Savage to plead his case, said some of the magnet schools are just too small to support their own athletic programs.

Savage said the rules were crafted to "maintain some semblance of order" among the 92,000 Connecticut students who participate in high school sports and protect the integrity of the games.

"In this particular case, our regulation is quite well defined," said Savage. "Hes not being denied an opportunity. Its just a matter of being denied an opportunity where he wishes to play."

But Savage acknowledged that the changing landscape of education, in which students are no longer limited to attending schools where they live, is causing athletic conferences to rethink their rules  and not just in Connecticut.

Savage said the CIAC already changed one of its rules in response to magnets and charters, limiting the amount of time a student must sit out if they switch schools without an address change, from one year to 30 days, if the transfer is for non-athletic reasons.

Florida took the extreme step of abandoning its transfer rules, allowing students to play wherever they show up for the start of the school year, Savage said.

"I think what most people dont understand is the potential for abuse by adults in trying to manipulate our regulations," Savage said.

The Sound School is unique because it is a vocational-agriculture program. Elsewhere in the state, vocational programs are affiliated with larger high schools, and students are permitted to play on those high school teams, said Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of Education.

"Its a very unique facility in that its stand-alone," said Murphy. "Perhaps it could be affiliated as an annex or connected program. Thats one possibility."

The school district recently filed an appeal of the CIAC decision in Foushees case. The district has yet to receive a decision.

"I just have a lot of whys at this point," said Mayo. "I think its unfortunate the young man cant play this year."